Behind the Opera Curtain
by Hailey Franklin
Summary: Gemma is back at spence. From Madame LeFarges wedding to sneaking out at night with strange people from a shady organization, this term is just as exciting. But then strange things start to happen...
1. Chapter 1

Behind the Opera Curtain

**_May 12th 1896_**

_**Spence Academy**_

_**Somewhere near London**_

Spence is beautiful this time of year. That is what's going through my mind at the moment, as I pad up the front stairs, all two hundred and twelve of them. The grass is green and soft like a carpet in my father's gentleman's club in London. The sky is well, blue. I guess that you're expecting me to say that there is not a cloud in the sky, but that would be lying, so I will be truthful and tell that there are a great many clouds in the sky, but it just made it more pleasant to be outside. My friends, Ann and Felicity, are just ahead of me. We have just been in the woods, in the spot where the caves used to be. I am not saying that the caves themselves aren't there, but they may as well not be, because they hold no more promise of adventure to us. No magic is left in them, but it used to be filled with it. After all, it had been the place where I had first found Mary Dowd's-my mother's- diary, the thing that had first shown us the magic of the realms.

"Girls! You must hurry! Mademoiselle LeFarge has already left for her final fitting!" Mrs. Nightwing is calling at us from the top of the stairs. Her voice is high with anxiousness. But why shouldn't she be worried about being late? After all, it is her own employee who is getting married this very fine day, and to miss it could mean losing yet another teacher. But the real reason that we hurried our strides was because there would be many a fine gentleman there, and we jolly well weren't going to miss that!

When we scurried past Mrs. Nightwing's scrutinizing gaze, she gave a cry of alarm.

"Where have you girls been? You all are filthy! And look what you have done to your dresses! Shameful! Tsk! Tsk! Now Mary will have to give you all baths! And only a couple of hours before the wedding! We shall be the scandal of London!" She was still muttering to herself as we climbed the stairs adorned with cherubs and devils alike.

"We aren't that dirty!" Ann says, taking offense at even the slightest remark on how she looked. Ann was a doughy, pale sort, with lank mousy brown hair that always looked oily and dull, unreadable eyes. All her clothing was extremely modest. Her excuse for her failing wardrobe is her doomed fate to be a governess for her aunt's little devils. But you would think that she was doomed to go to a convent!

I look down at our dark hunter green dresses, the school inform, and raise my eyebrows. For someone who says she likes to be truthful, Ann sure had made the understatement of the century, for we are dirty. I had a masterpiece of splattered mud worthy of Van Gogh's praise on the front of me, and the same, if not even more flattering, on my backside. I could probably take my dress and stretch it across a frame and sell it at an art jamboree and make quite a lot of money. I can just see it in the London Times, _Gemma Doyle, Spence student makes hundreds on original piece of art titled **The Mud Dance!**_ I laugh at myself.

"Stop sniveling Ann, it's not becoming." Felicity has hit Ann right in the stomach with this one, and Ann just looks down at her dragging feet in shame. Ann is very self-conscious about what she says and what she wears, and holds Felicity in her highest regards for Felicity is stunningly beautiful and wealthy, though not as lovely as Pippa, and is her idol. Felicity knows this, and uses it against her. I am the neutral one. I take the side of whoever I feel is right. In this case, I side with Felicity.

"She's right Ann. And I have a headache so your whining just irritates it more." I always feel bad after lying to Ann, but in this case it is necessary.

We are at our room, Ann's and mine that is, and we say farewell to Felicity, who has her own room. Mary, my lady's maid, is waiting already with a half filled tub of water, and armed with a rough, painful looking scrub brush and a bottle of rosy smelling hair soap.

"Great," I moan. They're going to scrub me to death since they're

other attempts, like trying to teach me French, have failed miserably.

A long, painful bath and twenty hot rollers later, I am standing in a pew in a white church in the London countryside. Mademoiselle LaFarge is up at the podium with her new husband, and there are many a tears in people's eyes, but especially Mademoiselle LaFarge's. You would think that she had just married the King of England instead of Inspector Kent, who was a detective in Scotland Yard but I was glad that she was happy. Unfortunately though, I was not among the happy people. I was pinched into the ideal womanly shape thanks to my blasted corset. And my many, many, many petticoats were not exactly keeping me cool in the May heat. I was grateful when we were finally let out of the cramped little church. I was enjoying the breeze so much, in fact, that I didn't notice him at first, standing there in the trees not fifty feet from where I stood off by myself. But I did notice him when he threw a knife at me and it landed about an inch from my foot. _Then_ I noticed.

I guess that any person with common sense would turn around and run screaming bloody murder until they reached their carriage, but my life had absolutely no common sense in it, so you could say that it was my own stupidity that made me walk toward the knife thrower. My excuse was that if someone wanted my attention so much that they threw a knife at me to get it, then what they wanted to do with me must be very important. So I walked over to the hooded figure…


	2. Salina and Ellis

When I am a couple of feet away from the edge of my stalker's hiding place, they hiss at me in a strange, slithery sappy voice.

"Hurry!" I quicken my pace in fright. Well can you really blame me? I mean, sure I've faced foe much more frightening. Like the poppy warriors and Circe's apprentices, anyone who had a voice like _that_ would frighten you too! There really was no adequate way to describe it except for it sounding like a bloody snake!

Now I am searching my way through the brush and into the woods, which is a very arduous task if I may say so myself! Well, it certainly is no walk down the street! Little branches with talons reach for my face and try to pull out my eyes. The trees want me for dead I believe, for they are showing me no mercy what's so ever. The hooded figure is leading me deeper and deeper through the woods. I look back after five minutes of our hike and find that I cannot see the old white bleached church. I am also finding that a hike through the woods in ninety-degree weather in a corset and three petticoats is not the jolliest way to spend the afternoon.

"Um, I don't think that we should…" But I am cut off by my hooded figure.

"Shush! We are almost there!" He says it in his slithery snake voice. I am beginning to wonder what really _is _under that hood. I truly wouldn't be surprised if it was part man part snake! And should I, a sixteen-year-old fairly attractive young English woman be going off into the middle of the woods with it, whatever it was?

"Stop!" it, says. "Salina should arrive soon." I am trying to figure out who in God's name Salina is, when yet another hooded figure walks from the opposite direction of where my hooded figure and I had come.

"I am Salina, and you shouldn't use our good lord's name like that." Is it just me, or does it seem like she has just read my mind?

"We must speak quick, or they will send out a search party for you. You are familiar with the Order, correct?" Salina has directed this startling question at lucky me. I am trying to decide whether to reveal any of my information with these people, or things, I should say, since they both have not revealed themselves.

"Before you start your interrogation, my I ask to whom I am speaking?" I ask with as much genteel manner as I can muster. The hooded figure laugh together.

"Don't fear us, Gemma!" Says the one who has led me out her.

"We ourselves are members of the Order!" Salina finishes.

Well, quite frankly I am astounded. Was I actually speaking to woman, yes women, of my own kind? But my amazement is replaced by anger. Where were they when Ann and Felicity and I were fighting Circe's minions? And why had they not come sooner so they could have at least taught me the basics of having my kind of powers! But most importantly, why had they not helped my mother when she had to fight Circe's apprentice? They could have saved her!

"Leave me alone," I say through clenched teeth. Their smiles are quickly wiped of their faces. I suppose that they are not used to taking orders from people.

"It is not our fault that your mother died. Nor was it our own when you needed help and training. We were being held captive by the brotherhood." Salina explains this to me as if she were talking to a small child. And once again, she has read my mind. I am finding it incredibly unnerving that someone that I hardly even know can sense my most intimate thoughts. It was, annoying at the least.

"Remove your capes, then. And you must tell me your name," I say this last part to my leader.

"Fine, for we have nothing to hide. And my name is Ellis." And then they have dropped their hoods, and there, standing before me, are the two loveliest women that I have ever encountered. This included Pippa. When Ellis had said that they had nothing to hide, they really meant it! They looked like women from those French fashions magazines that Felicity gets every month. I wonder if they were models when they were not helping the order. But they were also proof that the Brotherhood had indeed been tricking me when they had wanted me to bind the magic under those fateful words. Not that I needed anymore proof, for Kartik had left them, hadn't he? Wasn't that a sign of their wrongs?

"How can I trust you? And why?" I ask them. They immediately hold out their hands, where, on each of their pointer fingers is a ring. The ring of the order, with the two intertwined snakes. I nod my head.

"Fine, then. And in answer to your first question, yes, I am familiar with the order." I have taken the plunge.

"You have made a good choice to trust us. You will need friends during your reign. And speaking of your reign, have you made any plans on what you are going to do to rebuild these fallen realms? It has come to our attention that you have promised, er, creatures, stake inthe magic." Ellis tells me this bit of news with a grimace.

"Yes. We had a little encounter with Philon. It made it _quite _clear that it had not forgotten your promise." Salina shudders.

"Um, well. I hope that it didn't harm you," I say. Although I think that that it is quite funny. Philon definitely did harm them, for they both had looked uneasy when speaking of it. Philon could easily snap a giant in half. Sheis even frightening to talk, because she wields so much power. She is higher than the cantaurs on the hierarchy scale.

Before they can reply, shouts ring through the forest.

"Gemma! Gemma!" they cry. It was Ann, Felicity, and Mrs. Nightwing.

As I turn to bid Salina and Ellis goodbye, I find that they have disappeared. I think that it is going to take some getting used to of this magic business.

I sigh and turn around to head towards their voices.

"I'm here!" I cry. We meet at the edge of the forest.

"Oh, Gemma! We were so worried! We thought that the gypsies had kidnapped you. They are all over this time of year!" This was Ann.

"Oh, Ann! We weren't that worried! Gemma dear, we knew you were safe all along." Typical Felicity.

"Come now girls, into the carriage. Gemma has delayed us long enough. Felicity! Please do not trip Miss Poole!" And we are on our way back to Spence.


	3. I told you I'd be back

"Why are you not eating anything tonight, Gemma?" Ann asks me with a concerned expression on her plump face, creating a look that quite resembles a grimacing hamster. I have not told her and Felicity yet of my encounter with our fellow members of the order, Salina and Ellis.

"I'm just thinking," I hope that this is an adequate answer for I do not wish to be bothered while I think. Ann gives me a hard, long look, then shrugs her shoulders and goes back to attempting to delicately shovel pork roast into her mouth. A task doomed to fail, I believe, but Ann keeps trying.

"Something's happened that you're not telling us Gemma. And I really don't want to have to go through that whole best-friends-tell-each-other-everything speech again. And it's about the realms, I'm sure." Felicity chastises me while holding her own forkful of pork roast and managing to look graceful. I give her an icy glare. Why did I have to have friends that are either extremely bossy or terribly dim?

"If it were that important, don't you think that I would have told you both by now?" I think that by saying this, I have gotten myself into a terrible pot of trouble, and I wish to snatch it back into my mouth and forget about the whole conversation. But instead, I have awakened a hornet's nest.

When I see Felicity drop her fork on to her plate, I jump at the racket it has made. A couple of other girls have been startled also, but they just go back to their business. Ann is regarding this little episode with an unreadable expression.

"It's that gypsy boy, isn't it?" Felicity hisses at me vehemently. Ever since I caught her with her own gypsy, in the little boat house by the lake, which, may I point out, is the reason we are such jolly good friends today, as she was afraid that I would tell. She has been rather touchy on the subject of this wild breed of human.

"Felicity, I dare say that this is not the time or place to speak of such matters," I hiss right back at her scornfully. "And besides, he is Indian not gypsy!" I decide to add as I moodily roll my eyes and head for the nearest exit. Because the truth is, I wish that my news were about Kartik. Oh how I missed his bright, understanding brown eyes, and long lashes. I miss how he laughs and how he speaks with that smooth, deep, masculine voice. But most of all, I miss the feeling of his touch. The way fireworks went off inside my body when he kissed me during the holidays.

Back in my room that I share with Ann, I stand in front of my full-length mirror. I suppose that some would call me handsome, though that subject would surely end there with that simple accusation. My complexion is terribly ruined beyond repair by my splattering of freckles along my nose and high cheekbones. My unnerving green eyes stand out almost as if they glow, and my high forehead gives way to a possibly entangled mass of reddish blonde hair, though I would call it a thicket of wild roses instead, for it is so wind swept and wild looking. I have a long, graceful swan neck, one of my attributes, which leads too my chest, below a very bony collarbone, are my ample bosoms, which I daresay is the only reason any man would ever look at me! I have a long upper body, a flat tummy, and long legs, all pale as the moon on a winter night, naked against the black sky. I am tall unfortunately, and big bones, but skinny, there is not a bit of fat on me.

Slowly I peel of my clothes, and change into my nightdress, Ann has still not arrived from downstairs, and she is probably reading to the younger girls. Ann needs to feel needed. She starts wasting away when she has no purpose.

I am settled down with Pride and Prejudice, when there is a commotion from just outside of my window. Rocks are being pelted at my window and someone is loudly whispering my name.

"Gemma! Gemma?" I would recognize his voice anywhere. I throw my book onto the ground, it is boring anyway, and shoot out of bed. As quickly as I can I open the latch on the window and swing it out. I am looking from three stories up into the face of Kartik.

"Come down," he says with a smile. He needn't ask me twice, for I am down the grand staircase in a mere ten seconds, and running right past the bewildered glances of teachers and students. He meets me by the edge of the woods, where we are hidden from sight by a large tree and blanketed my shadows. He holds out his arms, but I hesitate, then rush in. The warmth of it is amazing. A man can make a woman feel so _alive!_

Softly he murmurs into my neck, "I told you I'd be back,"


End file.
